Toronto, ON- Stan Damian, a housewears department shelf stocker and occassional cashier at Acme Glass, expressed sadness Wednesday over the rapidly approaching end to his reign as Employee of the Month. Fellow employees didn't have the heart to tell Mr. Davisdunn his reign had actually ended ten months ago.

Wednesday, 24 September 2008

Cut a perfect circle every time without the aid of alcohol! This 'lens' cutter makes cutting circles from 3/8" to 5" way too easy. Excellent for all those small projects such as jewelry where you just need a perfectly round and small circle.

Only $69.99, but if you come in and tell us you read it here first, until Oct. 31, it's yours for only $55.55...

Yes, it's true- Albert Einstein took the beginner course at Fantasy In Glass many years ago. After making the obligatory teddy bear night light and bird suncatcher, Albert cornered Mikey late one evening and asked Mikey how he felt he was doing in the class. Mikey, in all his wisdom quietly and thoughtfully responded,"relatively well".

Friday, 19 September 2008

As if visiting us wasn't exciting and rewarding enough, you can also help yourself to several binders we have, full of free stained glass patterns(all copyright free). Many of them are our own in-house designs, and many come from Spectrum's Score Magazine, a quarterly publication that's been around for (I think) over twenty years (Mikey's mom used to let him colour in the patterns so long as he stayed inside the lines). It includes news on various Spectrum product as well as offering several full size patterns. The latest issue can be found here.

Thursday, 18 September 2008

The Canadian made Cone Art kiln pictured here, if you notice, has a side door as well as a lift up lid- apparently Mr. Tucker was a frustrated pizza pie maker. This kiln is ideal for both fusing and for annealing torchworked beads (the elements are encased in quartz to protect them from prodding rods).

We've been able to get Cone Art to make this kiln (measuring 9" x 9") without a door and can offer it to you at a little better introductory price- basically, pre-order this specific kiln and we'll give it to you for $488.88!

Now remember, this is a real kiln. Not one of those 'foamy' kilns with the coils buried that can't be serviced. This one is made like the big boys- you know- stainless steel surround, high temp premium grade fibrebrick, infinite switch, hinged lid (not a lift-off), CSA Approved, and includes a pyrometer, stand, shelf, posts and kilnwash...

The hardest thing to overcome, if you want to start fusing, is the cost of the kiln itself. Well, that's not so ominous today with the revival of the microwave kiln (under $130.00) and our reintroduction of Cone Art Kilns, with their entry level BX117 (9"x 9", with pyrometer, shelves, etc) at only $599.99, and now even less with a 10% discount for pre-orders! If you're thinking of picking one up, we've just found out that they are about 3 weeks away.

Wednesday, 17 September 2008

While we've always been strong supporters of Bullseye glass for fusing, unfortunately we also have competitors ('the horror'... Mikey)- competitors who don't have the same allegiance to Bullseye as we do. We are the only full line dealer for Bullseye, and have carried all of Spectrum Sys 96 glass as well (it's actually quite easy as their selection is so small- 21 opals and 26 cathedrals- remember, the whole line is only somewhat bigger if you add in the colours made by Uroboros). We find that customers who end up in our store from elsewhere are usually using Spectrum as it is more readily available, whereas Bullseye is not. To appease these customers while we brow beat them into the virtues of Bullseye, we've widened our peripheral Sys 96 stuff, and are now carrying a full line of frits, powders and pebbles. We've put a link to Spectrum's System 96 catalogue (pdf file) here.

Ever cautious about bringing in 'fusible' glass from China (inconsistent quality, compatibility issues, no tech support, environmentally irresponsible, labour issues, etc), we are occasionally forced to make some concessions against our better judgement to meet the needs of our customers. Like other products in the past (like our $3/roll foil) we'll bring them in but will still tell you their faults and then let you decide. As such, we've reluctantly brought in some miscellaneous fusing glass embellishments in 90 coe.

The first is 1 oz tubes of millefiori (90 coe) containing about 50 pieces and priced at $5.99.

The second is a line of fusible dichroic glass in various colours and patterns. Pieces are 2" x 3" and are all priced under $10/each.

Monday, 15 September 2008

Our factory direct delivery of glass from Bullseye Glass Co. arrived last Friday. We make an effort to carry every single colour they make, in both regular as well as thin thicknesses for stained glass as well as fusing, and with this shipment any missing colours in our inventory should now be filled.

We also ordered quite a bit of curious glass for fusing with this shipment ...

Sunday, 14 September 2008

Noodling around on the web the other day (Mikey's favourite porn site must have been down) we came across this cute little video. Now we hate it when people think that they alone are the purveyors of all things cool and then inundate your email box with stuff that often really isn't cool at all, but give this one a quick shot. I thought it could have been made with Bullseye's glass rodz given the vibrant colours used- find it here.

Friday, 12 September 2008

That's right! Now, while Mikey may enjoy pulling your leg occasionally, not this time (although he does have a microwave fireplace at home- he can spend an entire romantic evening in front of a roaring microwave fire with The Missus in 5 minutes).

This is a chamber specially formulated to allow you to fuse glass in a microwave oven! And you even do it in as little as 3 minutes. The chamber at 2.75" is a perfect size for fusing jewelry and such. Don't believe it? Come on in and try ours!

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Homasote is, with out a doubt, the perfect surface to work on. It's lightweight making it easy to transport, waterproof (no watermarks from that tumbler of scotch- no ice please), and you can easily use pushpins rather than nails to hold your glass project in place. It also gives slightly so it's equally great as a cutting surface. It comes in any colour you want so long as it's grey. But not only is it grey, it's also green- it's made of recycled newspaper.

And while it's been impossible to get in Ontario for quite some time, that's not the case any more. That's right folks! Mikey the proud purveyor of all things impossible to get, just arranged for and got 600homasote work boards- in various sizes:

19" x 24" ... $9.99!

24" x 48"... $19.99!

48" x 48"... $29.99!

48" x 96"... $43.99!

And boy, we're proud to say that we were able to get them safely across the border- and imagine that, they don't need hydro approval.